Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the J.F.K. Assassination

by Anthony Summers

  93 Haste by FBI: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover by Anthony Summers; New York: Pocket Books, 1994; pp. 367, 519.

  Rowland: II.169, 183(Arnold Rowland); VI.181, 185 (Barbara Rowland).

  94 Motorcade approaching at 12:15 p.m.: XVII.460; XXI.390, 911.

  Mrs. Arnold’s leaving time: XXII.635 (Baker); XXII.656 (Johnson); XXII.671 (Rachey); XXII.645 (Dragoo); Brennan: III.142 (Brennan).

  Brennan at lineup: Report, p. 145 (see also for both Brennan comments to FBI).

  Brennan and “Communists”: III.148 (Brennan).

  Eyesight: III.147, 157 (Brennan).

  Brennan and “no recoil”: III.154 (Brennan).

  95 Brennan and “smoke in knoll area”: III.211.

  Report on Brennan: Report, p. 146.

  Oswald’s brown shirt: XXIII.417; XXVI.445; II.250; III.257; CD 1405; Life magazine, October 2, 1964, p. 8; (pictured in color) Model and Groden, op. cit., p. 137.

  Oswald’s “reddish” shirt: Report, pp. 605, 613, 622, 626.

  Policeman on shirts: III.263; III.257 (Baker).

  Note 16: An analysis of a film made by a citizen named Charles Bronson (reported in Dallas Morning News, November 27,1978) suggested that (at 12:24 p.m.) one of the moving figures on the sixth floor wore “purplish red” upper clothing. Oswald claimed during his questioning that he had changed his shirt at his roominghouse after leaving the Depository and before his arrest. He said, according to reports of his interrogation, that the shirt he discarded was “reddish-colored” or “red.” No such shirt was ever traced. So far as is known, he owned only brown, light brown, and blue shirts (XVI.515). What’s more, he was remembered as wearing a tan shirt by a neighbor who saw him leave for work on the day of the assassination (II.250). Yet Officer Baker’s testimony (III.263, 257) does seem to corroborate Oswald’s statement that he had changed into a darker shirt. It is not really clear what color shirt Oswald wore to work that day. While the matter remains unresolved, it was evidently not white or light-colored—and that is the color clothing reported by most of those observing a window gunman. (The shirt Oswald was wearing when arrested is preserved at the National Archives.)

  Rowland on shirt: II.171.

  Brennan: III.145.

  96 Clerks: VI.194 (Fischer); VI.203 (Edwards); also XXIV.207, 208.

  Mrs. Walther: interview with Earl Golz, November 1978 (in line with early statement, XXIV.522).

  Baker: III.244– (Baker).

  97Note 17: Baker himself initially wrote in his statement (XXVI.3076) that he “saw a man standing in the lunchroom drinking a Coke [author’s emphasis].” He subsequently crossed out “drinking a Coke.” One of the details announced by Police Chief Curry was that Oswald was seen by Baker and the building superintendent, Roy Truly, carrying a Coke (Leo Sauvage in Commentary, op. cit., p. 56). If that were not so, it is hard to see how such a precise detail arose in the first place. Yet Baker and Truly ended up saying Oswald had nothing in his hand when they met him (Report, p. 151). The question is important to the issue of whether Oswald could have got down from the sixth floor to encounter Baker and Truly when he did. Even without a pause to obtain a Coke, it would have been a close shave. If Oswald purchased and started drinking a Coke by the time of the encounter with the policeman, then the known time frame is stretched to bursting point—some would say beyond. (Oswald himself, incidentally, told the chief of Homicide he was “drinking a Coca-Cola when the officer came in.”) (Report, p. 600.) In this author’s opinion, the balance of the evidence suggests he was.

  A relatively new book, which the author received only as this edition went to press, is relevant to the timing of Oswald’s descent to the lunchroom. In The Girl on the Stairs, author Barry Ernest examined the account of a Book Depository witness named Victoria Adams. Adams claimed she and a colleague hurried down the stairs from the fourth floor without seeing or hearing Oswald making the same descent. The crucial factor, the exact time they actually went down the stairs, however, remains unclear. Citing the evidence of other testimony and contemporary film footage, Gary Mack, today the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, believes Adams descended the stairs before Oswald—and that this explains why the women did not see him. (Barry Ernest, The Girl on the Stairs, Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2013, Mack corr., 2013)

  Reconstructions: For extensive discussion, see Roffman, op. cit., p. 201–; Meagher, op. cit., p. 70–; (Assassinations Committee, 1979) HSCA Report, p. 601nl23.

  President late: Report, p. 3; XXII.613– (and see especially 616); Report, p. 643.

  98 Oswald asked workmate: III.201 (Jarman).

  Curry: VF, December 1994.

  99Note 18: The two newsmen who recalled being directed to a phone were Robert MacNeil, then a reporter for NBC, and Pierce Allman, then program director for WFAA TV. Both men remembered the encounter but did not recall the individual who pointed out the phone well enough to say he had been Oswald. (crew-cut man: Report, p. 629; MacNeil: “Covering the Kennedy Assassination,” MSNBC; Allman:Wardlaw to Gannaway, February 18, 1964, Dallas PD, Criminal Intelligence files, Box 13, www.jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us, CD 354.)

  Supervisor: III.279 (Mrs. Reid).

  Foreman: XXIV.226 (Shelley).

  Bus ticket: IV.211 (Fritz); VII.173 (Sims).

  Taxi driver: II.260 (Whaley).

  6. The Other Murder

  101 Alexander quoted: int. 1977.

  Roberts: VI.438; VII.439.

  102 Check on cars: XXV.909; XXIV.460.

  Oswald name crops up: Report, p. 9 (in Hill 1:51 p.m. radio report); XXI.40, 397; (Beckley address discovered after 2:00 p.m.) Report, p. 601.

  103 Order to Tippit at 12:45: IV.179 (Curry); XXIII.844.

  Tippit call at 12:54: IV.179, 184 (Curry); VII.75 (Putnam); XXIII.849–.

  Call to Tippit at 1:00 p.m.: XVII.406 (precise time pinpointed by private study of police tapes).

  Tippit call at 1:08 p.m.: XVII.407.

  Citizen’s call at 1:16 p.m.: XVII.408.

  Report scenario: Report, pp. 6, 7, 165.

  104Markham according to Report: Report, pp. 167, 168.

  Markham statements: III.305–, 321–342; VII.409–.

  Death instantaneous: Report, p. 165; (Benavides testimony)VI.446–.

  Crowd: III.336, 354; VI.448–.

  105 Ammonia: IV.212 (Fritz).

  Note 1: Attention has been drawn to the fact that one witness in the Tippit case, Warren Reynolds, was shot in the head two days after telling the FBI he could not identify Oswald. There was no apparent cause for the shooting. Reynolds recovered and later agreed he thought the fleeing gunman had been Oswald after all. Within a week or two of the Reynolds shooting, a key witness in that affair was found dead in a police cell, having apparently hanged herself. She had herself earlier mentioned an association with Jack Ruby and his club. The brother of a Tippit witness was shot dead, and many assumed it was a matter of mistaken identity. While these incidents arouse speculation, there is nothing evidentiary to link them to the Tippit or Kennedy killings. However, it is clear they were inadequately investigated. (Injured witness: XXV.731; XI.437; XI.435; dead brother, (Eddy Benavides): Meagher, op. cit., p. 299).

  Ball: debate in Beverly Hills, California, December 4, 1964. Lane, op. cit., p. 161.

  Clemons: interview filmed by Mark Lane, March 3,1966; interview report by George and Patricia Nash, New Leader, November 12, 1964; notes of int. by Earl Golz and Tom Johnson, 1965.

  106 Wright: Nash interview—New Leader, November 12, 1964.

  Note 2: Myers’s book is With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J. D. Tippit, Milford, MI: Oak Cliff Press, 1998.

  Best evidence/forensic: See Myers, op. cit., p. 250– & previous edition of this book (New York: Marlowe, 1998), p. 69–.

  107 Travel p
ossible in time frame?: ibid., p. 72–.

  108Alexander: ints. by author, December 1977 & August 1978.

  Note 3: Alexander pointed out that the alleged assassin was close to U.S. Highway 67—R. L. Thornton Freeway—when he supposedly clashed with the policeman, and may have been returning from it. Highway 67 is the route to Red Bird Airport, then a field for small aircraft on the outskirts of Dallas. Alexander speculated (interview with this author, 1978) that Oswald may have expected to be picked up and taken to the airport, but that something went wrong at the rendezvous, and the getaway failed.

  109 Record shop: Hurt, op. cit., p. 163–, but see Bugliosi, op. cit., p. 583–.

  Mechanic: HSCA XII.37, 39, 40.

  Note 4: The author is indebted to researcher William Kelly for his summary of this episode. Kelly points out that the owner of the car in question, aside from being a friend of Tippit, worked for Collins Radio in nearby Richardson, Texas. That same month, Collins Radio had received publicity in connection with its lease of a ship, the Rex, involved in a CIA operation to land commandos in Cuba. Alleged assassin Oswald had been introduced to a Collins executive, retired Admiral Chester Bruton, by George de Mohrenschildt. (Research supplied to the author by William Kelly; and see De Mohrenschildt references in this book.)

  HSCA on Tippit: HSCA Report, p. 59–.

  110Note 5: The Mafia associate was John Martino—see index under “Martino”—his claims are covered in Chapter 24. Additionally, a Dallas police source was years later to report a allegation he said had been made to him by Max A. Long, a sometime boxer and “motel-bar operator” with a criminal arrest record. When Oswald killed Tippit—outside 404 East 10th Street—Long said, he had been on his way to a “safe house” at 324 East 10th. Long said he knew Jack Ruby and other figures who have been linked to the assassination. He has been linked, under variants of his name, to two addresses on 10th Street—the homes at 324 and 317. The report was turned over to the FBI, but it is not clear that it ever received serious attention. Long died in 1980. (Myers, p. 360, citing FBI 62-109060-9866, August 24, 1977)

  7. A Sphinx for Texas

  111 LeCarre: quoted in Arthur Schlesinger article, Cigar Aficionado, November/December, 1998.

  Curry: int. 12/77.

  Alexander: int. 12/77.

  112 Oswald motive: Report, pp. 421, 423; HSCA Report p. 61–.

  Robert: VF, December 1994.

  113 Oswald on JFK: Report, p. 627, report of Secret Service Inspector Kelley;( Marina) HSCA II.252, 217, 209; McMillan, op. cit., pp. 194, 350; HSCA XII.361, 413; (Martello) X.60; (eve of murder) HSCA XII.413, 331; VF, December 1994.

  114Note 1: An exception—the only exception so far as the author knows—was Volkmar Schmidt, an oil industry geologist who met Oswald at a social occasion in Dallas early 1963. Thirty years later, he said in an interview that Oswald had been: “extremely critical of President Kennedy, and he was just obsessed with what America did to support this invasion [of Castro’s Cuba] at the Bay of Pigs, obsessed with his anger towards Kennedy.” In an FBI interview within a week of the assassination, however, Schmidt had recalled nothing like this. On the contrary, he had asserted that—in a conversation on politics that lasted several hours and during which Oswald appeared “very frank”—Oswald “did not speak of President Kennedy or his policies.” Against that background, no credence can be given to Schmidt’s later claim. (Epstein, Legend, p. 483–, Gus Russo, Live by the Sword, Baltimore, MD: Bancroft, 1998, p. 120, citing int. for Frontline program; (int. by FBI) int. Volkmar Schmidt, November 29, 1963, FBI 105-82555, Oswald HQ file, Section 22) Oswald to president of Bar Association: VII.329 (Nichols).

  Abt: report of Inspector Kelley, Report, p. 627; www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAabtJ.htm

  115 Robert Oswald: I.468; (diary) XVI.901.

  Johnson: CBS News, “The American Assassins,” Part II, November 26, 1975.

  116 Warren: New York Times, February 5, 1964, p. 19.

  FBI spokesman: int Inspector Hoynden, December 1977.

  117 HSCA stymied: author’s ints. with HSCA sources, 1978–1979; HSCA Report, p. 490 (end of dissent by Congressman Dodd).

  Johnson: Warren Commission memorandum by lawyer Melvin Eisenberg, February 17, 1964.

  Marina Oswald mysteries: see Chapter 10, “Mischief from Moscow.”

  Russell: Warren Commission Executive Session transcript for January 21, 1964.

  118 Meller: CD 950, interview of Meller by Dallas police officers Hellingshausen and Parks, February 17, 1964.

  Moore: ints. (widow) Jeanne de Mohrenschildt, 1978 (she corroborated her husband’s version of Moore’s remarks); and George de Mohrenschildt interview with Edward Epstein, March 29, 1977, Legend, op. cit., p. 186.

  Kantor and Hendrix: Kantor, op. cit., p. 198–; El Paso Herald-Post, September 24, 1963; (Homestead) “Bayo-Pawley Affair,” Soldier of Fortune, Spring 1976; and see Hendrix references, Thomas Powers, op cit.

  119 Army Intelligence: memo attached to FBI document 105-82555 (unrecorded; original in 62-109060-811); Dallas Morning News, March 19, 1978, quoting FBI documents; HSCA Report, p. 221.

  120 Preyer: int., 1978.

  HSCA on (lack of) agency involvement: HSCA Report, p. 2.

  Note 2: The “serious allegation” referred to is the charge by a former anti-Castro exile leader that he saw his American Intelligence case officer—a who used the cover name “Maurice Bishop”—with Oswald shortly before the assassination. The same officer allegedly attempted to build up a false story that Oswald had been in touch with the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City. The episode will be dealt with later in the book. (See also Index references to “Bishop.”)

  Chief counsel’s comment that the allegation remained “undiscredited”: HSCA IV.476.

  Warren Report on agencies and Oswald: Report, p. 327.

  Dulles: Warren Commission Executive Session, January 27, 1964.

  121 Newsman’s question: contemporary news film.

  Combest: int., August 1978.

  122Note 3: In the 1978 interview. Combest also said that Oswald accompanied his headshaking with “a definite clenched-fist salute.” This cannot be taken as good evidence of a political gesture, given Oswald’s condition at that moment. It may indeed have been an expression of pain. Combest said nothing about the “salute” in his statements on Warren Commission testimony (XII.185 and XIX.350).

  Artificial respiration: Manchester, op. cit., p. 604.

  Oswald prints taken: XVII.308; Fort Worth Press, November 25, 1963.

  II. OSWALD: Maverick or Puppet?

  8. Red Faces

  125 Oswald quote: XVI.817; letter to Robert Oswald, November 26, 1959 (from Moscow).

  “Communist conspiracy”: William Alexander, an Assistant District Attorney, quoted by Manchester, op. cit., p. 326.

  Colby recalled: Colby memo, September 6, 1975, no. 1188-1000, JFK files, Box 60, Folder F1, NARA.

  126 Nosenko: Epstein, Legend, op. cit., p. 11.

  Schweiker: int. 1978.

  Epstein book: Epstein, Legend, op. cit.

  127 Angleton: quoted by Seymour Hersh in New York Times Magazine, June 25, 1978, from Angleton testimony to Senate Intelligence Committee, 1975 (Book III, 1976).

  Young Oswald & Communism: (statements of mother) interview of Marguerite Oswald in New York Times, December 10, 1963; XIX.319; (high school friend) VIII.18—William Wulf; (second friend) HSCA IX.109; (writing to Socialist Party) XXV.140.

  Note 1: The Oswald letter to the Socialist Party, which included the statement “I am a Marxist and have been studying Socialist principles for well over fifteen months,” appeared in an unusual way. An FBI report of December 18, 1963, less than a month after the assassination, states that it had turned up that day “during routine processing of inactive files of the Socialist Party of
America,” stored in the library at Duke University, North Carolina. Although there is no concrete reason to doubt the letter’s authenticity, it is odd that this document was discovered among hundreds of other papers, quite by chance, so soon after the assassination. It became the documentary proof that Oswald was a budding left-winger even before his enlistment in the Marine Corps (XXV.140). For further discussion of the origins of Oswald’s ostensible Socialism, see Chapter 17, “Blind Man’s Bluff in New Orleans.”

  128 Interest in Marines: Report, p. 384.

  “Confidential”: XIX.665.

  Atsugi period dealt with in Warren Report, Appendix XIII.

  129 Officer’s comment: Captain Gajewski, Epstein, op cit.

  Legend, op. cit., p. 68.

  Oswald as crew chief: VIII.291, Lieutenant J. E. Donovan testimony.

  Oswald intelligence: Gator Daniels, int. cited in Epstein, Legend, op. cit., p. 70.

  130 U-2: primary sources are Gary Powers, Operation Overflight; Harry Rositzke, CIA’s Secret Operations; Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team; eds. Gary Powers & Harold Berman, The Trial of the U-2, Chicago: World Publications, 1960; David Wise & Thomas Ross, The Espionage Establishment. Edward Epstein in Legend provides the best detail of the U-2 operation at Atsugi, and Oswald’s familiarity with it.

  Note 2: In a 2008 book on Oswald and activity at Atsugi, former Marine Corps intelligence officer Jack Swike—who served at Atsugi during approximately the same period as Oswald—asserted that the base indeed housed a nuclear facility. (www.themissingchapter.com/leeharveyoswald1.html, referring to Jack Swike, The Missing Chapter: Lee Harvey Oswald in the Far East, www.createspace.com, 2008).